Kindle ('slightly foxed') fetches record price

A first edition Amazon Kindle e-reader ('slightly foxed') has been sold for an undisclosed record price at Sotherby's.

'A first edition Kindle would not normally attract a great deal of interest,' explained secondhand Kindle dealer Rupert Foster, 'because there are millions of them. But a slightly foxed Kindle is rare.'

Recently a Kindle ('slightly creased screen with faint pencil notes in the margins'), was sold on eBay.

The value of a Kindle can depend as much on its content as on its physical condition, according to experts.

'Recently we were unable to reach the starting price on a Kindle containing 3,500 books because most were Jeffrey Archer novels,' said a Sotherby's spokesman.

Last month the secondhand Kindle market was rocked when a Japanese dealer bought a Kindle, said to contain a rare copy of Shakespeare's First Folio, which was later exposed as a clever forgery.